Tied Together With A Smile
by BevinScott
Summary: After walking into a really awkward situation,Derek becomes the cause of bringing back old issues for Casey,pushing her back into things he never knew she had done.Forcing him to put his feelings aside and save her from herself.Dasey.Rating to be safe.
1. Intro

_**I don't know why this idea popped into my head, but it seems that I can not update any of my fan fiction unless first writing this. I don't really watch LFD that much, so if theirs little mistakes, don't kill me. But I do really like the show, I'm just busy and never catch it on. I think it's the only hope at a normal Disney show like the ones that I loved when I was a 'tween' or the first couple of teenage years. Like Lizzie McGuire and Even Stevens. Shows were money wasn't handed out and new cell phones weren't the shows biggest problems haha. Anyways, I came up with this idea last night, and I've been trying to update my One Tree Hill story ever since, its not working out for me, so I decided to give this a shot, so be nice and please review! Keep in mind, this isn't my first fan fiction, but it is my first LFD one. And yes, before you asked, the title of the fic is also a song by Taylor Swift. The song is basically the reason I came up with the entire thing.**_

**Tied Together With a Smile**

**-Intro-**

Derek Venturi could loudly hear the familiar sound of an old Christina Aguilera song blasting from an upstairs bedroom the second he got into the house. It was a Saturday morning an there had been a message on his phone about the family going out to breakfast, in which Derek didn't get until he woke up later with a killer headache. Too much tequila the night before maybe? He had said he was with the guys, which wasn't a complete lie, but he didn't mention the party, or the alcohol.

The sound of the high pitched voice was making his head hurt worse, so without thinking he ran upstairs and into Casey's room. But what he saw made him stop dead in his tracks, there she was. The girl that always got on his last nerve, the girl he was convinced he hated, dancing around in a barely there pair of black lacey boy shorts, and a matching lace cami that came just above her belly button, and absolutely nothing else.

Her face had no makeup on it as she jumped around singing the words of "genie in a bottle" with her hair flying everywhere. He had never seen her look so beautiful. He wasn't stupid, he knew Casey was attractive, but he could never admit that, after all, she was his step sister. But watching her seem so carefree, unstressed, not to mention undressed, it was something he had never mentioned, and it was having a clear effect on him, and there was no denying that.

Derek noticed he was staring, and tried to look away, just in time for Casey to whirl around and see him standing there. She shrieked, staring at him for a second trying to register what was happening. Why was he just standing there smirking, why was he still staring, she had no idea, but she quickly turned of the music and grabbed the nearest piece of clothing to cover her body.

"DER-REK!" she screamed in her normal tone, covering the lower part of her body with a towel, "what are you doing?!" she screamed again, causing him to jump and look away. But with in seconds he recovered and started spitting out an excuse.

"well I was trying to go back to sleep, but when I came in you were blasting that sorry excuse for music" she snapped glaring right back at her, reaching forward and pinching an almost nonexistent piece of stomach fat. "Maybe you should cut down on the junk food, chubs" he said trying to spark a reaction so that she would be so mad she wouldn't notice the bulge forming in his pants. It worked as she quickly went from a rage of anger to looking completely crush, which did make him feel bad, but he had to get out the current situation.

"Get out!" she screamed pushing him towards the door and slamming it. Once in the hallway he sighed, looking down at what clearly Casey had done to him. It made him feel so horrible, dirty even. That his step sister could actually turn him on that much. Trying to shake all thoughts from his mind he headed towards the bathroom, mentally preparing for the ice cold water he was going to need to force himself under.

Meanwhile though, Casey had thrown the towel to the side again and was now examining herself in her full length mirror, poking at her stomach. She tried to tell herself that Derek was just trying to make fun of her, trying to get her going, but in the back of her mind the chanting of her Jr High nicknames were starting to come back to her.

Not that anyone in her new family knew about her past, but Casey suffered from an eating disorder from the age of 13, and finally got help around her 15th birthday, only months before her mother married George. From the time she was 9, Casey was kind of chubby, finally sick of being teased when she started to get into her teen years, she decided to take matters into her own hands, quite literally. She wouldn't eat for days, and then she would binge and purge. She constantly worked out, causing her to nearly collapse more than a few times. But no one seemed to notice, until she was 14 and a half and she was running in gym and passed out, the doctors said it was starvation, and diagnosed her as bulimic. They could tell from the redness of her throat that she had often made herself throw up, and against her own will she was put into rehab, only returning to school 3 full weeks before entering the new family.

Though Nora watched her carefully, Casey made both she and Lizzie promise they'd never mention it. It was hard enough being the new girl, Derek's step sister, let alone the girl with an eating disorder. So for the past two years she never mentioned it. She was doing so much better, gaining a little weight back, and was now at an almost normal weight. But like with any girl, she still had her self doubt. Often thinking she was fat, but never saying it out loud in fear of what her mother would say or do.

But now every feeling seemed to pour back into her. Looking in the mirror she would swear she saw rolls of extra weight that didn't truly exist. And just thinking about the feeling of Derek pinching it, pointing it out made tears form in her eyes. And before she knew what she was doing, she was rushing towards the downstairs bathroom and throwing the food she had consumed the night before up.

After staring into the toilet for what seemed like hours, but was really only seconds Casey stood up and flushed, running cold water over her face and running back up the stairs after hearing the sound of car doors closing outside.

It would only be this once she promised herself as she got dressed. It was just a slipup, it meant nothing. But the feeling of his fingers still made her blood go cold, and her eyes well, and of course made her wonder, why did she even care what he thought.

_**Just a start, enough replies will make me update. I know it's a little out of character, but like I said, I don't watch often. & Also, if you haven't noticed it is a little into the future, Casey and Derek are both 17, which is why the alcohol, and sexual tension is more apparent.**_


	2. Pretty Girl

**Thank you all for all of the positive feedback! You honestly have no idea how much it means to me, but it slightly makes me slower due to the fact that I try to make things flow perfectly. But keep them coming and I promise I'll keep updating as quickly as I can! I also reread it and noticed a lot typo's, I had written it on word pad so the format wouldn't screw up, so I had no spell check. Anyways, this will hopefully have less errors, tell me what you think! The whole blog thing just came to me, a lot of my friends who do or have suffered from an eating disorder, not to mention myself have told me that they often update blogs to get their true feelings out there to the world, but never really telling anyone who it is.**

Chapter One- Pretty Girl

Weeks had passed since the incident, and neither Casey nor Derek had brought it up once. It was something they were both hoping to forget, but that wasn't the case. It was still constantly on both teenagers minds, yet both tried to escape it by putting extra effort into other activities.

But it was already a week into December, and Christmas break was just around the corner, something both were regretting. For Derek, Christmas meant being home with the family, having to spend more time than he wanted to with Casey, it was kind of hard to forget the image of her dancing in her underwear when everywhere he turned she was there. As for Casey, Christmas had always been her favorite, and least favorite holidays. Favorite only in the sense that it always brought the family together, and she was such a hopeless picture perfect movie type of girl. But the down side would be the platters full of food. Turkey, ham, potatoes, every single food group times 3, and probably more would be on the table, staring at her.

But Casey was determined to stay strong, or at least that's how she appeared. But now, quietly staring at the computer screen of her laptop, she was finally letting out her true feelings on the matter.

**[Thursday, December 4, 2008 at 3:51 pm**

**SUBJECT: chubs.**

**Its all coming back to me. You all know exactly what I'm talking about. The pressure, the pain, the feeling that I'm not good enough. 3 weeks ago is when it all started again. Not the same way as last time, I wouldn't actually consider myself obese this time, but looking in the mirror, I might be on the verge.**

**It had be 2 years, 2 very life altering, long, drawn out years since the last time I'd done it. But then something happened, and before I knew it, I was leaning over the toilet bowl, emptying the stomach that was barely full.**

**But I had good reasoning. He had made me feel dirty, cheap, fat, disgusting. He will not be named, for the sake of any of you discovering who the world sees me as. But he was right. Sure, he doesn't know about my past, and sure, he would lie just to make me feel like shit, but looking in the mirror I knew he was right.**

**And admitting he was right was the last thing I'd ever expected. But its true, I've let myself go. I failed. **

**Since moving, I've gained a total of 37 pounds. Bringing my full weight up to a completely 128. **

**I wish that I could meet the girl I was 3 years ago, maybe she would talk some sense into me, or maybe at least shove her fingers down my throat in attempt to rid me of this disgusting body.**

**Well, my phone is ringing, I think its him. Probably calling to remind me once again that I need to stop eating so much.**

**I'll keep you posted, once again.**

Sighing as she clicked post she shut her laptop and grabbed the cell phone next to her.

"What do you want?" She growled into the phone, knowing perfectly well it was the evil step brother.

"I kind of need a favor.." Derek starting, of course causing Casey to roll her eyes, of course he did.

"Hmm, let me guess, you won't be home til late, and you need me to tell mom and George that your studying with Sam?" she questioned, getting off of her bed and walking towards her door.

"Exactly, so just tell them I have a big English test tomorrow, and I really need to study" he was practically begging by now.

"Why should I do you any favors, and besides, you actually think they'll buy that?" Casey replied smirking, although he couldn't see it, he also knew she was.

"Okay, maybe you shouldn't do me any favors, but then I wouldn't do any favors for you" he said simply causing her to only roll her eyes again, "I guess I'll just have to tell Nora how the coffee table really got broken"

"I hate you" she mumbled, knowing she now had no choice, "fine, but if they don't believe me its not my fault" was all she said before closing her phone and sighing loudly. After mentally cursing herself for giving in so easily, as if she didn't have enough on him to get him back, she really didn't' feel like any more confrontations with him. So instead she opened her door and jogged down the stairs,

"Mom!" she yelled loudly making her way to the kitchen, "Derek won't be home for dinner" she explained, "he has some English test tomorrow, and apparently if he doesn't pass he can't take Riley to the Christmas dance" she said rolling her eyes. It was complete bullshit, but she wasn't about to go down for him again.

"Did he say what time he'd be home?" Nora questioned, only half believing the story, but she figured it must be true because there is no way Casey would cover for Derek.

"No, but he said he won't miss curfew, so I'd count on 11:59 on the dot" she shrugged in annoyance just thinking about what he was really doing.

Meanwhile Derek blew the smoke into the air while he passed the small glass pipe to the person next to him.

"So is she covering for you?" Ralph asked, taking a hit off the pipe before passing it onwards.

"Of course she is" he said smirking, things always worked out for him.

"What did happen to the coffee table.." Riley, Derek's girl of the week questioned, looking up at him with her glassy blood shot blue eyes. Derek just shrugged, obviously not wanting to talk about the eventful night.

Most of the circle began chatting about random stuff, bands, parties, sports, but Derek was just staring into space, and Riley of course was beginning to bug him. He couldn't quite figure out why he didn't like her as much as he let on. She was like the guy version of him. She loved to party, was up for anything at anytime, was known to get into a tad bit of trouble. But most of all, she was what some would see as the most unique girl in school.

Although no one would guess, Riley's parents were loaded. Her father was a photographer, and her mother, a retired model, which would explain her good looks. Most girls with this kind of life would flaunt it, but not her. She was the girl you always saw in the same type of clothes, yet, she always looked different. Her worst fear was being the same as everyone else. She was most often seen wearing a pair of leggings, flats, and some band tee with her hair down, with some sort of bright colored bow, and her makeup was always done drastically. She was different, but Derek thought she was almost trying to hard to be different, rather than actually being who she was.

But he tried not to let it bother him, but sometimes he wondered what he even saw in her. Besides her looks. She was one of the tiniest girls he'd ever seen, but it wasn't like she didn't eat, because she did, almost constantly. Probably a total of 100 pounds, and only 5'2". The kind of girl who always wore leggings because she couldn't find jeans that didn't fall off of her. Basically the exact opposite of Casey McDonald.

"Derek are you listening to me?" She questioned, poking his arm to snap him out of his stoned, zoned out trance.

"yeah, sure" he shrugged, trying to ignore the fact that even though one of the hottest girls in his school was sitting on his lap, throwing herself at him, is thoughts were still shifting towards his own step sister.

But at the house, Casey was sitting at the dinner table picking at her food, trying to move it around her plate to make it seem as if she ate more, a trick she had used many of times in the past.

"Casey is everything alright?" Nora finally asked, watching her daughter carefully, "you love lasagna"

"Oh, everything's fine, I just haven't been feeling well today, I think it's a bug or something" she said quickly, trying to avoid the real reasoning for her sudden loss of appetite. "May I be excused? I think I'm going to finish up homework and go to bed early" she lied. There was no way she would go to sleep even remotely early, she hadn't for weeks.

"Are you sure you'll be okay?" Nora asked slightly concerned about her eldest daughter. But Casey smiled her oh so convincing smile at her mother. "Okay, but if you need anything let me know" she made her promise, Casey just nodded before clearing her plate and running upstairs to her room.

Hours passed pretty quickly after Casey was away from her family. Back on her laptop, reading through random peoples blogs, people that she use to talk to all the time, the people who got her through when she had no one else to turn to. She didn't realize how caught up in the blogs that she was until she heard the sound of someone walking up the stairs, Derek of course. Glancing at the alarm clock next to her bed, she raised her eyebrows. 11:30. Surprisingly early for him.

She heard a slight knock at her door and sighed pushing the top on her laptop down.

"Come in.." she mumbled, well at least he had knocked this time. He peaked his head through the door, not coming in all the way. She could tell by the redness of his eyes what he'd been doing, but didn't say word.

"What'd you tell them?" He questioned quietly, trying not to wake anyone else in their sleeping house up.

Casey shrugged, smirking a bit, "that you were studying so that you could take Riley to the winter formal" she smiled innocently, watching his face turn from content to completely annoyed.

"You know I hate dances" he growled, she just shrugged.

"well, you know I love watching you suffer" she said simply, "see you in the morning" she told him, giving him a hint to leave, which he did willingly, still glaring at her as he turned off the light.

He sighed walking into his bedroom and getting on his computer, checking his email first before his online journal, clicking the update list, surprised at first to see the user name of someone he use to know.

**StarvingBeautyx updated at 3:51 pm, today.**

He sighed as he started to read the entry, still curious as to who she was, and why he cared so much about her well being.

**Okay kind of a lame ending, yes I know, but its with reason. The picture in my head when I wrote Riley's character was Hanna Beth, if you don't know who she is simply ask and I'll send you a link to where to find her pictures. Please review, it helps me a bunch!**

**As to what to look forward to in later chapters..**

**The winter formal, binging and purging, and more discoveries.**


End file.
